Sensory Deprivation

UPDATE: The creatures I have been observing are not Perosomes or Jelly fish. They are called Salp.

I left the house a little before 5:30 this morning. This might be the earliest I have ever left for a swim. Great to have the extra light this time of year.

It's overcast but pleasant. It's light enough to swim but I need to turn my headlights on the way to the beach.

Things look pretty sleepy as I pass Doheny and not a lot of surf. Surf report says 3 to 4 but I think that might be right if the unit of measurement is inches.

I make it to the strand parking lot and there's not enough light to get a good read on the ocean surface texture. Plenty of parking available.

I head down the stairs and the ground is nice and warm. It's mid tide on the beach. I don't see any surfers in the water and just see one walker on the north end of the beach.

The water feels quite pleasant on the feet. It really is nice to come here and just not think of cold water. This exercise activity is different from running in that fear is an active ingredient. It might be cold water or big surf or marine life. Today I'm thinking a little about sharks given the early hour but I'm not obsessed about it. It's just enough fear to add an edge that I think adds some value to my mindset. Today is definitely on the tame side though. Really not much to be afraid of here but I try to keep a healthy respect for the ocean.

I get in the water and start to swim south. It is so perfectly comfortable. I look up as I pass the stairs and see it lined with the lights still on.

I see something pass by out of the corner of my eye. I saw the same thing yesterday except I didn't really see it. It is small and passes close beneath me and it is just kind of a flash so I can't make out any details. It seems like it might be spotted. Today I get a good look. Oh wow. It is one of those things I have been seeing the last couple weeks that I thought might be a jelly fish. It's not just one. It is several of them all connected together like links in a chain.

I think this is what is called a perosome. It is a colonizing species where several individual members make up a single organism. I see a couple more throughout the swim.

It really is a great swim the whole way. I let my mind go in this blue void and my thoughts drift and dream. The water is perfect and it is like floating in a sensory deprivation chamber with the exception of the random seaweed or perosome brushing against me.

When I pass the stairs on my way back north, the lights have been turned off. The cloud cover looks tinted blue not far to the east and I wonder if this will all burn off sooner than later.

I pass the big Bertha and then the big Bob buoys. Now it's time to turn around and finish up.

I do just that and pass a couple on my way up the ramp to the asphalt road. The man jokes and asks if I just swam in from Catalina. Haha. I say I got up extra early and did. Well that's half correct.